Lights, Camera, Action: Teaching Ethical Decision Making Through the Cinematic Experience

ROBERT A. GIACALONE and CAROLE L. JURKIEWICZ

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: TEACHING ETHICAL DECISIONMAKING THROUGH THE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE

(Accepted 9 May 2000)

ABSTRACT. This article provides a description of how a movie exercise can be usedto demonstrate to students the complexities of business ethics. Using the exercise as anapplication of theory, and as a tool for cognitive development, it serves to deepen thestudents’ understanding of complex ethical issues. A step-by-step methodology, along withpossible variations of the exercise, are provided. A list of movies is also provided, and themeasurable pedagogical benefits of the exercise are discussed.

In the perpetual search for techniques to make business ethics acces-sible and interesting to students, faculty have tried a number of differenttechniques. This article details how movies can be used to illustrate andintegrate ethics at work, and in everyday life.

Connecting the ethical issues interwoven in cinematic characters, plots,and outcomes to business ethics provides students with an interesting wayto learn the nuances of ethical decision making. It helps to assert for thestudent that ethical issues in everyday life are not distinct and separatefrom those issues at work. Quite the contrary, students discover the samecore ethical dilemmas can surface in a myriad number of ways. It has beensuggested that integrating students’ value structures through ethical inquirythat spans both personal and professional issues can serve to elevate ethicalbehavior in the workplace (Van Wart, 1998; Cooper, 1999).

By providing an inroad through which students can grasp the complex-ities of ethical systems, the use of movie provides a link that can bridgethe gap between experiential learning and theoretical understanding. Thespecific steps, benefits, variations, and potential confounding factors ofusing movies are illustrated here in full.

THE EXERCISE

The exercise itself is conceptually simple: students are asked to chooseand view a movie that dramatizes an ethical dilemma that might beexperienced at work. Students are then asked to address a series of issues(described below) that help them realize and develop the connection

Teaching Business Ethics5: 79–87, 2001.© 2001Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

80 ROBERT A. GIACALONE AND CAROLE L. JURKIEWICZ

between ethical issues encountered on and off the job. They are asked topose resolutions for the problems therein, and suggest ways to share theirlearning by describing how they would recommend the movie be used totrain others. Juxtaposing the student as learner and as teacher broadenstheir scope of understanding and encourages them to take ownership ofthe ethical solutions proposed.

THE EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE EXERCISE

Using movies to help students learn, apply, and solve ethical issues hasa number of educational benefits. While these benefits are experiencedconcurrently, they are presented here as distinct in order to clearlyarticulate specific impacts.

Allows students to focus on something they enjoy.Students enjoy moviesand have been acclimated to the notion of the medium as message.Bridging ethical pedagogy to events they enjoy should improve theirmotivation to learn as well as their ability to retain and recollectknowledge. The use of familiar media, coupled with events that are placedin a real-world context, will also help them integrate ethics instructionwith the ethical challenges faced daily. The vivid visual cues and storylines make it likely they will either identify with or distinguish themselvesfrom characters in the movie on moral grounds. Such an intuitive,non-challenging approach to defining their individual value systems canproduce surprising effects for students when placed within the context ofethical theory.

Helps students to recognize that ethical issues are within a systemiccontext, not discrete events.The use of movies provides a natural contextfor demonstrating how ethical events occur within a system, rather thanseparate from it (Lewicki and Bunker, 1996). Whether family, society, orbusiness, the story line serves as a mechanism that connects decisions andevents to each other in a logical sequence and reflects the consequencesof actions. The long-term impact of decision and indecision, of causeand effect, and of right and wrong are shown longitudinally in a roughlytwo-hour drama.

More importantly, the use of movies demonstrates that unethicalbehavior cannot be understood as a discrete event, but only within thesystem in which it occurs (Messick and Tenbrunsel, 1996). It is this systemthat holds the key to uncovering how history, organizational culture, situ-

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION 81

ational contexts, and human motivation play a role in the occurrence of,and reaction to, unethical behaviors (Sterba, 1994).

Once students recognize that business and non-business life arenot distinct realities, they can discern for themselves that assertionsproclaiming business is amoral, and that non-business operates on adifferent continuum with different “rules,” are problematic.

Makes ethics realistic in a way cases cannot.Although written cases areinvaluable in creating dimensionality through data and facts, they cannotprovide the richness of experience found in movies. The depth of feelings,the complexity of relationships, and the pathos of human limitations canbe closely approximated via movies, as can the liberating sense of selffound in ethical responsibility. Movies engage a variety of senses in thelearning experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere. The staging,sound effects, dialogue, and characterizations draw students into thereality of decisions in a more vivid way.

Helps them to develop critical and creative thinking skills.In exploringthe movies’ nuances, whether through language, mechanics, or art, thecauses and remedies of ethical dilemmas can be teased apart. Studentsthereby learn to more skillfully identify the world of “potentials,” thatambiguous milieu in which all ethical behavior occurs. To recognize thisambiguity as a normative state redirects the students’ search for easy,either/or answers to ethical issues. In doing so, they improve their criticalthinking and creative skills within the context of ethical choices.

Demonstrates how ethical decisions, decision-makers, and events areinterconnected and interdependent.By virtue of the story itself, moviescan demonstrate how one action is connected to so many others. Inshowing this, movies also provide a glimpse into how people andinstitutions are interdependent. Thus, an ethical lapse is seen within thegreater whole, making even “small” ethical infractions a concern for many.With a visual depiction of this important lesson, it is likely that studentswill be less able to dismiss an isolated ethical act as inconsequential to alarger whole. The concept of interconnectedness will be difficult to denyonce it is witnessed “firsthand.”

Helps students see the connection between scholarship and ethicaldecision-making.Asking students to take the next step and explainelements of the ethical dilemma is more easily accomplished using movies.By simultaneously rooting dilemmas in the ethics literature and in the


ethical issues portrayed in the movie, students can “ground” their studiesin the more tangible reality of a story. Within a grounded context, theyare more likely to remember the literature and be able to apply it in othercontexts and to future decisions.

Provides students with practice in exploring decision-making alternativesand understanding the obstacles to ethical decision-making.In askingstudents to provide alternatives and understand the obstacles to success-fully remedying a given situation, students can collectively explore therealities of ethics. What constitutes a good choice? Why and how doobstacles occur? What are the consequences of action or inaction? Howcan choices be considered within the context of potential obstacles?

THE PROCESS: WHAT STUDENTS SHOULD BEASKED TO DO

Students are guided through a series of questions that help them to makeethical connections between work and non-work issues. The issues thatmust be addressed, listed below, provide students with a clear set ofdirections and expectations. The assignment directions unfold as follows.

1. Start with the basics.Provide the title of your chosen movie, alongwith an explanation of why you selected it for this exercise.

2. Just the facts.In a simple, clear manner, summarize the plot of themovie. Who were the main characters? What did they do that wasethical or unethical? How were their behaviors interconnected? Whathappened in the movie? How did it end?

3. Clearly identify the ethical issues in the movie.Identify all the ethicalissues that the selected movie raises. Each of the ethical issues shouldbe clearly explained: What was the behavior, action, or inaction? Whywas it an ethical issue? Which of your ethical rules or moral principledid it appear to violate? It is important to remind students that illegalis not the same thing as unethical.

4. Show how the ethical issue develops over time.For each ethicalissue, create a timeline that charts how the ethical issues developed.Start with the initial signs that an ethical infraction was possible:What signals or actions preceded the issue? What ideals or concernsprecipitated the occurrence of the ethical issue? If the issue wasresolved, what brought about the resolution? Was the ethical infractionintentional or accidental?

5. Establish the connections.Show how each of the ethical issues wasconnected to other ethical issues in the movie. Did the issues arise from


the characters, the plot, or an interaction of both? Did they permeatethe theme of the movie or were they constrained to specific scenes?

6. Draw conclusions.What moral judgements were evident in the movie?Were they balanced or biased? Did you agree with them or not?Explain why.

7. Connecting work and non-work issues.Link the ethical issues identi-fied in the movie to ethical issues at the workplace. How are the issuessimilar and dissimilar? To what extent will the situation influencewhether and how the issue arises at work?

8. Getting to the roots of the issue.Identify factors at the root of theseissues for business. How did these issues occur in the first place?What structures or processes in society, the organization, or manage-ment/employee relationships may have contributed to the ethicalissue? How might the community outside of the organization havecontributed to the issue?

9. Establishing a background.Identify scholarly/practitioner articles thathave addressed the core ethical issues. Provide full citations for thearticles along with a paragraph explaining how each article relates tothe ethical issues you have identified.

10. Define your ethical goal.What would be your ideal resolution to theethical dilemmas? What is, realistically, the best outcome that couldbe achieved, given the circumstances? Would you recommend thisresolution for similar ethical dilemmas experienced at work? Why orwhy not?

11. Establish the pitfalls.Identify the obstacles that could potentiallyprevent the best possible outcome to the situation.

12. Teaching others: Show them how.Provide instructions on how themovie could be used to train others about ethical issues at work.Identify a training sequence including how you would introduce thesession, questions you would ask of trainees, describe exercises thatcould assist the trainees in relating the movie to experience, andproduce a debriefing outline in which the key learning initiatives forthe training period are summarized.

VARIATIONS IN THE EXERCISE

This exercise allows for a number of variations in format. Below weidentify some of these variations.


Written or oral reports. The exercise has been conceptualized (andassigned) as a written report, but it need not be. While select reports canbe used as examples to share with the entire class, students may insteaddo the same report orally, or could be asked to actually create a trainingprogram in which all of the above would necessarily be included. If anoral report is chosen, it is recommended that a list of in-class examples beprovided to all of the students so that they can view them in advance. Alist of movies targeted to this exercise is presented in Table I. Some offersituational perspectives on ethical dilemmas in the workplace, and othersaddress profound underlying principles easily transferrable to the businesssetting. The student is challenged to go beyond the obvious good vs.evil characterizations, being required to analyze the issues more deeply.Developing an ability to recognize the deeper issues extant in the twistsand turns of the plot is a significant learning tool in addressing issues ofbusiness ethics.

Teams.The class can be divided into teams of 5–7 students and each teaminstructed to select a movie for discussion, either from the list noted hereor one of their choosing (and approved by the instructor). Teams couldbe requested to submit either a written or oral report covering each of thecomponents previously outlined.

Assign a topic area and have students find a movie for it.Assigning a topicarea (for example, conflict of interest) and asking students to find a moviethat addresses and deals with the ethical issues reverses the direction ofthe exercise. However, when assigning the exercise in this way, instructorsare cautioned that the difficulty of the assignment increases significantly.The instructor may wish to cluster movie titles under topical headlines inorder to jumpstart the assignment.

Brainstorming.In this variation the exercise begins with the class brain-storming movies that feature ethical dilemmas. The instructor writes themovie names on the board or flip chart as they are called out. One is thenselected from the list by majority vote and the instructor engages the classin an ethical analysis of the movie. Students are then given random orderpreference either individually or in teams, to select another movie from thelist to analyze in a written report.


TABLE I

Ethics cinema list

12 Angry Men Primary Colors

A Few Good Men Reversal of Fortune

All About Eve Roger & Me

Class Action Saving Private Ryan

Clear and Present Danger Schindler’s List

Con Air Secrets and Lies

Copland Serpico

Courage Under Fire Shawshank Redemption

Crimes and Misdemeanors Silkwood

Dangerous Liaisons Small Soldiers

Don Juan DeMarco The Apostle

Face Off The Crying Game

Fargo The Devil’s Advocate

Five Easy Pieces The Devil’s Own

Glengarry Glen Ross The General’s Daughter

Hoosiers The Hunt for Red October

Jerry Maguire The Insider

Liar, Liar The Mission

Lion King The Negotiator

Meditteraneo The Nutty Professor

Mephisto The Sting

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Tin Men

Mr. Holland’s Opus To Kill a Mockingbird

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Trading Places

Out of Africa Under Siege

Patriot Games Unforgiven

Phenomenon Wall Street

Platoon With Honors

Power Working Girl

Priest

ENHANCING THE EXERCISE’S EFFECTIVENESS

The maximum benefit of the exercise can be realized if it is assignedafter students have been introduced to ethical theory. Lectures on ethicaldecision-making, normative models, and applied ethics timed to coincidewith the students’ work on the project will significantly enhance the quality


and long-term value of their work. Dovetailing instructor lectures andexperiential learning of students will help them deepen their understandingof the issues presented on movie as entertainment.

The day the students submit their written movie assignments providesan opportunity for collective learning. Students should be facilitatedthrough a full discussion of the exercise. They should be asked tosuccinctly identify the key ethical issues in their movies, identify the simi-larities and patterns across different movies, identify the parallel ethicalissues found in the business world. The instructor should transcribe theirobservations onto the board or a flip chart. Following this, students shoulddiscuss how contextual factors in both the movies and organizations affectthe ethical issues, and how organizational factors limit the options forresolving these issues. Recommended resolutions to these dilemmas canalso be discussed, comparing and contrasting their relative merits.

As a means of assessing the efficacy of the exercise, instructors shouldask what was the most important lesson the students learned from the exer-cise. What did they learn as a result of the exercise that they did not knowbefore? What was their most and least favorite aspects of the exercise?If the exercise were assigned to another group of students in the future,which aspects should change and which should remain the same? This canbe done either orally or via a take-home survey.

Having implemented various iterations of this exercise for bothgraduate and undergraduate students, it is one that has has been verypositively accepted. The value of offering a wide range of films has beenattested to across a wide range of groups, as students personal preferencesfor certain content designations (e.g., PG, PG13, R, etc.), can be accom-modated. Regardless of whether the class is during the day or evening,student attention to the movie and discussion has been invariant. Informingthe students in advance of showing a movie in class allows them to prepareand bring movie-type refreshments, in many cases involving other classmembers in an organized lunch or dinner buffet. In those instances whereclass time cannot be devoted to a showing of the movie, students arerequired to view it at home before completing the report, even if they haveseen it previously.

Close the exercise by asking students to apply their newly heightenedanalytical skills to the ethical dilemmas presented in other movies, tele-vision programs, music, theatre, magazine articles, and books they willexperience in the future. Suggest they attempt to decipher the source ofethical dilemmas they or other family members experience at work. Askthem to venture resolutions to these dilemmas, if only in their mind. It maybe a helpful point of closure to articulate that the value of deepening one’s


understanding of ethics extends beyond the requirements of a class or thelength of a semester.

REFERENCES

Cooper, T. L.: 1999,The Responsible Administrator, Jossey-Bass Publishers, SanFrancisco.

Lewicki, R. J. and B. B. Bunker: 1996, ‘Developing and Maintaining Trust In WorkRelationships,’ in R. M. Kramer and T. R. Tyler (eds.),Trust in Organizations, SagePublications, London.

Messick, D. M. and A. E. Tenbrunsel: 1996,Codes of Conduct, Russell Sage Foundation,New York.

Sterba, J. P.: 1994,Morality In Practice, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont CA.Van Wart, M.: 1998,Changing Public Sector Values, Garland Publishing, New York.

Robert A. GiacaloneSurtman Distinguished Professor of Business EthicsDepartment of ManagementThe Belk College of Business AdministrationUniversity of North Carolina – CharlotteCharlotte, North Carolina

Carole L. JurkiewiczAssistant Professor of Public AdministrationPublic Administration InstituteOurso School of BusinessLouisiana State UniversityBaton Rouge, Louisiana

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Lights, Camera, Action: Teaching Ethical Decision Making Through the Cinematic Experience